Women and Medicine in Boston with Virginia Drachman

Description

In 1862, the New England Hospital for Women and Children opened in Boston. It was a unique institution, a hospital run by women doctors for women and children. At a time when male-run hospitals were closed to women doctors, the New England Hospital provided women with professional opportunities unavailable to them at
hospitals run by men. When men’s hospitals opened to women toward the end of the nineteenth century, younger women began to turn away from the New England Hospital in favor of the opportunity for integration into the medical mainstream. The hospital finally closed its doors in 1969. This talk will tell that story.

Virginia G. Drachman is Professor of History at Tufts University, where since 1977 she has taught the history of women in America. She is the author of several books including Hospital with a Heart: Women Doctors and the Paradox of Separatism at the New England Hospital, 1862-1969; Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business; and Sisters in Law: Women Lawyers in Modern American History.

This event will take place on Monday, November 17, 2025 at 7:00 pm in the Robbins Library Community Room, lower level, 700 Mass. Ave., Arlington, MA. Admission is free and all are welcome.